Nike’s 1972 Running Shoes Auctioned At Record-Breaking $437,500

A pair of 1972 running shoes, one of the first pairs made by Nike Inc, sold for $437,500 on Tuesday, July 23, which broke the record for a pair of sneakers at public auction.

Sotheby’s head of eCommerce, Noah Wunsch, explains what makes them so special. Rough cut – no reporter narration.
The so-called Nike “Moon Shoe,” designed by Nike co-founder and track coach Bill Bowerman for runners at the 1972 Olympics trials, was the top lot in the first-ever auction dedicated to sneakers at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.

Sotheby’s said the price was a world auction record for a pair of sneakers. The buyer was Canadian investor and car collector Miles Nadal, who had previously paid $850,000 for 99 other pairs of rare or limited collection sneakers offered by Sotheby’s.

The highest previous price fetched at public auction for sneakers was $190,373 in California in 2017 for a pair of signed Converse shoes said to have been worn by Michael Jordan in the 1984 Olympic basketball final, Sotheby’s said.

Sotheby’s, better known for selling artworks fetching tens of millions of dollars, teamed up with streetwear marketplace Stadium Goods to auction 100 pairs of the rarest sneakers ever produced in a venture that reflects their fast-growing status as collectibles.